Sixth, is “A False Witness Who Pours Out Lies”.

    Once again, we go back to the root of all sin:  Pride.  A prideful person is quick to lie about others in order to make themselves look better.  If they accuse others falsely, they can blame others for something they did or something that they should have done.  I have heard this occur many times in the workplace.  Some will constantly be blaming others at work for their own lack of responsibility.  When things go wrong, they are always quick to point the finger.  It is what one co-worker of mine said: “They threw me under the bus.”  This means that they got blamed for something that they did not do and they were not responsible for in order for the lying person to look like a better worker.  They fail to shoulder the blame for something that they should have done or actually did do in order to accuse an innocent person who is not present to defend themselves. 

    A false witness will lie in court, perhaps even at the risk of perjury, just to get out of a crime that they committed, while assessing the blame on an innocent party.  A person who “pours out lies” loses all credibility in time and eventually, people will tend to not believe anything they say.  Lies catch up with a person because they have to speak other lies to cover up the first one and many times they become so entrapped by their many lies that they become like a fly ensnared in a web.  Their web gets so tangled up with their many lies that they often forget them all and it comes back to bite them.

    This is a very hurtful and disgusting way of lying to make someone else look bad, or to damage their character or their honor or honesty in order to accomplish a sinister goal.

Related to this is number seven, “one who stirs up conflict in the community”.

    Finally, this sin is one that has divided many churches.  Gossip is one way to stir up conflict and divide even the closest of friends.  A person who stirs up this conflict is like a person who throws gas on a fire that others are trying to put out.  It’s like dragging up old issues that might have been resolved but a person stirs up the issue over and over again.  When they are constantly stirring it up, like coals of a fire, it becomes hotter and hotter, and eventually erupts into a bonfire. Or, a person who deliberately grabs a stick and stirs up a bee’s nest. The person who is continually stirring up conflict is also a person who is full of pride.  They want others to get stung, while they are considered to be a person above reproach.  It will destroy a church and a community.

    These are the things that should not be any part of a Christian’s life or lifestyle.

I would suggest going back and reading all seven once again, lest we forget that these are things God hates!

Things God hates;

Fourth, "hands that devise wicked schemes."

    Anyone that plans ahead of time (premeditation) to do evil is a hand that devises wicked schemes.  This would include burglarizing homes knowing when the occupants leave, or a burglary after a store closes, sabotaging someone’s car with a bomb, waiting in a dark alley to rob someone, or stalking a woman in order to rape or kill her.  Anyone that plans ahead of time to do harm or evil to someone is a person that God is personally opposed to. Someday they will give an account for every evil deed they do in their lifetime (Matthew 12:36, Romans 2:6).  For those who are born-again, they have already had their judgment and have been declared innocent due to Christ’s atoning sacrifice.  God sees them as having Jesus’ righteousness imputed to them.  Those who have not believed in Jesus Christ and trusted Him as their Lord and Savior will face the Great White Throne Judgment and give an account for all their lifetime deeds (Revelation 20).

Fifth, “feet that are quick to rush into evil.”

    If their feet are quick to run into evil, they are already predisposed, or already of a mind to want to rob, murder, hurt, lie, or cheat others.  They don’t have to think about it. They instantly run to do something where they see an easy opportunity.  They quickly jump to their feet to take advantage of someone in a vulnerable position, like someone leaving their purse on a restaurant table or finding someone’s wallet on the floor and rushing to pick it up and quickly taking it for themselves.

    A person that doesn’t even have to think about doing something wrong is always quick to do it. They rush ahead, not even thinking of the consequences, so they are likely not a Christian and they have no conviction from the Holy Spirit about thinking twice about it.  Their only goal is easy money or an easy target.  They don’t stop and ponder about it – they run swiftly to take advantage of a situation.  The human heart, without the Holy Spirit, is desperately wicked and thinks nothing of jumping at the chance to do something wrong (Jermiah 17:9).  A Christian has to battle their conscience because God’s Spirit is restraining their behavior and making them think about the consequences first, tends to not jump at the chance to do something that they know is inherently wrong.

Third, is “hands that shed innocent blood”;

     God alone is the author and giver of life and only He has the right to take a life.  Here again, pride is a root cause of murder.  Anger and rage involve someone else doing something we don’t like or we want to take from others who have more than we do. James equates murder’s motives quite well in saying, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures“ (James 4:1-3).

    When do you think that the first murder took place? Most people would guess that the first murder was when Cain killed Abel. However, there was an earlier murder. When Satan took the form of a serpent and tempted Adam and Eve to sin, he caused them to sin and with that sin, they died (Genesis 2:17). This is why Jesus called Satan a murderer from the very beginning. (John 8:44).

    Murder is something that is easy to understand as being wrong. God has always opposed murder. It is listed as one of the things that God finds abominable in Proverbs 6:16-19. The word abominable has an interesting meaning; it literally means something that makes you sick to your stomach. God is not a physical being who has a stomach to be made ill, but the word conveys the idea that God finds murder a very disgusting concept.

    Many sins that men commit carry appropriate punishments for the sins. Even before Moses brought the Old Law to the Israelites, God gave mankind a command that murderers were to be put to death. “Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.” (Genesis 9:6)

    Some people think that killing murderers, called capital punishment, is a silly holdover from more primitive times that modern, civilized people should no longer practice. However, since God has commanded capital punishment, it would seem that a culture that does not kill its murderers shows a disrespect for the wisdom of God.

    To some people, killing a murderer is just another form of murder. To these people any taking of a life is wrong. Often, Exodus 20:13 is quoted, "You shall not kill." Some translations do render this verse in this way, but most good translations render the verse, "You shall not murder." The Bible makes a distinction between killing and murder. There are times when killing must be done, as in times of war, however the key word here is “innocent” blood.